Still, provisions were made for her to compete alongside her future Kentucky teammates this week, and the rules were bent for the best reason.

Winstead's mother, Shane, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in January 2015. Since then, the illness has spread to Shane's lungs. By the time the next collegiate season rolled around, there's no telling if Shane would have been able to go to Madison's first college swim meet.

Fortunately though, Kentucky let Madison compete early, allowing the swimmer to give her mother one of the best gifts possible. Check out the video above for the full story.